The City of Flagstaff has been awarded the prestigious Dark Sky Place of the Year award by DarkSky International.
The City of Flagstaff has been awarded the prestigious Dark Sky Place of the Year award by DarkSky International. This recognition follows more than six decades of conscious stewardship of the city's night sky, beginning with Flagstaff's implementation of the world's first outdoor lighting ordinance in 1958. Following a proposal by the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition to create the program, Flagstaff was named the world's first International Dark Sky City on October 24, 2001. To date, Flagstaff remains the largest such community by population, proving that cities can enjoy economic growth while protecting the nighttime environment for its residents and visitors.
The Flagstaff Code Compliance Department is tasked with implementing dark sky regulations throughout the city. The team regularly reviews outdoor lighting permit applications, conducts inspections, investigates complaints, and enforces compliance when necessary. The Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition supports the city's efforts through education and community events to raise awareness of dark skies. Taken together, this work enables the preservation of Flagstaff's dark skies to protect and improve the quality of life of its residents, according to a new release from the city.
This also allows key industries to operate in Flagstaff, including scientific research and astrotourism at Lowell Observatory, research and critical military operations at two naval installations including the U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station, and training operations at Camp Navajo, city officials say. Through this work, the Code Compliance team works to improve the quality of the nighttime environment by reducing light pollution in our community.
Building on the 1958 Outdoor Lighting Ordinance, both the City of Flagstaff and surrounding Coconino County have pioneered innovative approaches to protecting the nighttime environment. In 1989, Coconino County approved the world's first lighting code, restricting both spectrum and amounts of lighting, followed shortly thereafter by Flagstaff. The city's most recent outdoor lighting code, adopted in 2023, addresses modern technologies such as LEDs, but still limits the spectrum to primarily amber wavelengths and is consistent with current research on the harmful effects of blue light at night on people, wildlife and plants.
Additionally, the city and the coalition are actively supporting other communities seeking dark sky certification and sharing their expertise and best practices to help other cities around the world restore the stars – and even the Milky Way – to their own skies.
DarkSky's annual awards recognize the people, places and communities making significant contributions to protecting nighttime from the harmful effects of light pollution and highlight the work being done around the world to protect dark skies and the nighttime environment. FBN
Courtesy of the photo: Members of the Flagstaff Code Compliance Department and the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition celebrate the recognition.